Half-metallic ferromagnetic ground state in CePdSb

Abstract

The CeMX compounds, where M is a transition metal, and X is an sp element, have a number of different types of ground state including magnetic, metallic, and insulating, and they exhibit anomalous physical properties, such as the Kondo effect, heavy-fermion behavior, valence fluctuations, etc. Recently, a Kondo-lattice state has been proposed for ferromagnetic CePdSb, which seems to be unusual. Many Kondo systems have an antiferromagnetic ground state due to the antiferromagnetic nature of the coupling of Ce 4f and the conduction electrons, however, the coexistence of ferromagnetism and Kondo behavior is an unexpected feature. In addition, our band structure calculations for CePdSb show a state very close to a half-metallic ferromagnets (HMF). On the base of Kondo-like HMF ground state properties of CePdSb we discuss its magnetic properties and electrical resistivity data.